John Kelly warned on Tuesday that the Republican nominee meets the definition of a fascist and that while in office he suggested that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler “did some good things.”
The comments from the retired Marine general, who worked for Trump in the White House from 2017 to 2019, build on past warnings from former top Trump officials as the election enters its final two weeks.
Kelly has long been critical of Trump and previously accused him of calling veterans killed in combat “suckers” and “losers.” His latest warning emerged as Trump seeks a second term in which he has vowed to dramatically expand his use of the military at home and suggesting he would use force to go after Americans he considers “enemies from within.”
A love-hate relationship with the military
In his interview with the Atlantic and The New York Times, Kelly recalled that when Trump raised the idea of needing “German generals,” Kelly asked if he meant “Bismarck’s generals,” referring to Otto von Bismarck, the chancellor who oversaw the unification of Germany. “Surely you can’t mean Hitler’s generals,” Kelly recalled asking Trump. To which the former president responded, “yeah, yeah, Hitler’s generals.”
Trump’s campaign denied the accounts. Campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said Kelly had “beclowned himself with these debunked stories he has fabricated.”
The former president’s four years in the White House saw a high turnover of senior staff in what some labelled a “revolving door” of officials in and out of the West Wing. He has since railed against former employees, including Kelly, calling him, “one of the dumbest people I’ve ever met”.
Kelly isn’t the only senior military figure to accuse the 45th president of authoritarian tendencies. Retired Army General Mark A. Milley, who served as Trump’s chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Bob Woodward in his recent book “War” that Trump was a “fascist to the core” and “the most dangerous person to this country.” Trump also referred to Milley as, “a stupid person, very stupid.”
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Throughout Trump’s political rise, he has benefited from the support of military veterans. The Associated Press’ VoteCast found that about 6 in 10 military veterans said they voted for Trump in 2020, as did just over half of those with a veteran in the household.
The final countdown
With less than two weeks to go, polls show the race remains a toss-up, and a few thousand votes in a handful of counties could determine election result. Both Trump and Harris are crisscrossing the country making their final pitches to the few remaining undecided voters, as well as trying to sure up their bases.
Harris’ campaign has spent considerable time reaching out to independent voters, using the support of long-time Republicans such as former Rep. Liz Cheney. She is also drawing on comments like Kelly’s to urge past Trump voters to reject him on 5 November.
“This is a window into who Donald Trump really is, from the people who know him best, from the people who have worked with him side by side in the Oval Office and in the situation room,” Harris told reporters outside the vice president’s residence in Washington.
